The Conference Day 3

The last day of ILYMUN was just as eventful as the previous, combining once again presentations from guest speakers such as Valérie Faillat form Sanofi Espoir, Michael Roberts from INTERPOL, or Mr. Michael Kantinti, a refugee seeking asylum in France, stimulating debates and of course the emblematic General Assembly and closing ceremony in the afternoon. It was an exceptional closing chapter for a conference which is sure to have been a memorable experience for all those involved, from the delegates to the organizing team.

Security Council:

For the last day, the Security Council welcomed Michael Roberts, a guest-speaker who presented himself, his job at INTERPOL, and his role during the Spain terrorist attacks which took place in August 2017. The delegates had the opportunity to ask him their questions and to discuss with him. He also expressed his enthusiasm of being at ILYMUN for the first time, seeing all the students working together to organize this incredible conference. Most of the day’s debating revolved around the issue of countering inner city terrorism, a subject which saw a lot of participation from all the delegates.

Things took a wild turn as the Russian Federation delegates started removing their items of clothings during a particularly heated debate with the UK delegate. His five minute monologue drew much applause from all those present in the room, and was certainly the highlight of the day, along with the voting of superlatives. The Russian Federation, China and the UK brought home the most titles, from ‘’ most likely to become president’’ to ‘’ funniest delegate’’.

ECOSOC:

The last day of Ilymun started in a relaxed atmosphere, with the delegates voting superlatives such as ‘Best Dressed’ (Won By Turkey and Kenya) and ‘Most Attractive’ (won by Turkey). By 9h30, Pamela Vennin, in charge of pilot projects and large scale replication and Smart Cities Department for the Metropole De Lyon, gave an admiring speech on the ways Lyon encourages its citizens to be more aware of their actions on the city and planet. After the speech, the delegates joined other committees for the GA Lobbying, in preparation of the General Assembly.

Cultural:

In the cultural committee, the issue of protecting UNESCO historical cities from the ravages of war and siege was discussed. Italy presented a clause that protects sites by surrounding them with transparent domes, but after an hour of debating and a great participation from the delegates of Iran and Syria, the motion did not pass. The morning ended with the reading of the gossip box, an entertaining break for everyone. The afternoon started with an hour of lobbying by countries, after which the delegates headed to the General Assembly.

Historical Security Council:

The third and final day of the Historical Security Council at ILYMUN began with deliberation on the Korean War issue. The delegates accomplished perfectly the difficult task of accurately representing their countries’ interest at the advent of the Cold War. While the United States’ delegate promoted interventionism “to defend democracy”, his efforts were in vain due to the opposition of the Soviet Union and its allies. For the first time in the conference, the veto power was used, in this case by the Soviet Union, to block a resolution submitted by Egypt to prohibit “any possession or further use of nuclear weapons or nuclear movement in Korea.” The talks ended effectively in deadlock, but negotiation and cooperation remained a main priority for all the delegates.

Of course, fun was still on the menu for the final day of the committee. In the morning, all male delegates wearing a tie participated in a competition to determine the best one. Canada’s delegate became the winner, and exclaimed his gratefulness immediately after the result was announced: “Thank you, my friends! I couldn’t have done it without you!” The friendly atmosphere continued when the chairs began reading messages of the “gossip box”, where delegates submitted anonymous gossip about other delegates.

The third day of the Historical Security Council committee proved to be the most exciting and active of all. The nervousness and doubts that were present the first day have dissipated completely, and been replaced with excitement and eagerness to participate. The delegates have improved considerably since their first day in ILYMUN, as even those which were not confident speaking in English were today contributing and collaborating to the Korean War discussion. Many expressed their wish to repeat the experience, and are looking forward to signing up for next year’s ILYMUN. After the committee, the delegates and chairs went to enjoy the closing ceremony.

Youth Committee:

As this was the Youth Committee’s one and only day to participate in ILYMUN, the atmosphere was enthusiastic and productive. The focus of this committee was, Greener Cities, which was further sub-grouped into topics such as: pollution prevention and sustainable cities. Ethiopia submitted a clause stating, “all member states should, by 2030, spend 5% of their government budget on resolving deforestation, air and water pollution and the protection of endangered species”. The delegates were very interactive during the debate upon this clause, as the percentage of government spending was questionable. Many delegates, especially Ethiopia and Germany, argued highly valuable positions upon the issue. Some suggested that the percentage should depend on the availability of disposable income of a given country, for example, MEDCs in comparison to LEDCs. After much approval and declination, the committee developed highly relevant, promising, and inspiring clauses for sustainable cities. Suggesting it was the Youth Committees only day to debate, their productivity and perseverance is inspiring for future ILYMUN participants.

ICJ:

Today, for the final day of Ilymun 2018, ICJ was to ultimately announce the verdict of the three day suspense and thrilling perplexity of the ongoing war-crimes in Aleppo. At 8H00 sharp, the judges settled down, hurriedly arranging their respective naval blue robes, and awaited silently. The voting procedures began. During the absence of the advocates, the judges communicated their thoughts and views on the evidence supplied by both teams, evaluating the witnesses and inquiries the advocates presented during the sequence of the past few days. The atmosphere was utterly tense. Every judge spoke with agility and perception, scrupulously analysing every flaw or mishap. Overtly, when the lunch break was announced at around 1H00, there was a general and most substantial sigh of relief from all judges (and presidents!), clearly fatigued by the perpetual hard-work. However soon after, all were called back upon to reunite and discuss the final decree. After three days of endeavor and stringent perseverance from the advocates and from both the Applicant team and the Respondent team, the judges had made their final decision with an overall majority: International Amnesty - the Applicant team - was victorious! Mr. Peter Barabas then returned to congratulate the several delegates for the past few days, finalising his stay with a few motivational words the delegates will surely never forget. Comprehensively, the delegates were all very pleased with their hard-working stance for the past few days, which was rewarded with a rather solacing pastime, entertained by the presidents, where admins read the gossip box, judges danced, and the much awaited superlatives were announced. The presidents then excused the judges and advocates for their thrilling commitment, and all went back to the general assembly to assist to the closing ceremony. This year’s brilliant ICJ ended for the delegates with one singular apprehension left; post-ILYMUN depression!

Human Rights:

On this third and final day, motivation and productivity could have been used to describe this morning's session in the Human Rights committee as in less than 1h30, four resolutions were submitted, debated and three passed. The central theme they revolved around was in continuity of yesterday’s: the integration of refugees in foreign countries. Mainly every delegate agreed to set new policies in order to make foreign countries more welcoming for refugees, ideas such as providing education to asylum seekers' children, help in administration procedure or overcoming language barriers through offering language courses.

Later this morning, a GA lobbying session started where all the delegates were given time to discuss about NGO and terrorism and partner with each other based on their point of view.

Action assembly

On this last day of the conference, after an hour of debate, the Action Assembly had the honour to listen to Mr Kantinti, an asylum seeker. He discussed his integration in France, the procedure to be considered as a refugee and his daily life. The students were coming up with many questions after this wonderful speech and he answered the question from all the students with attention and passion. He gave us an example of positivity in this world. The students and people who assisted to the presentation were very moved and extremely thankful. His speech brought something very important, the human aspect, to something everyone knows only through statistics. The atmosphere in the room was indescribable. This addition to day 3 of ILYMUN was particularly striking. By the end of the interview, the students had stars in their eyes and Mr. Kantinti left the room very emotional. The press team was able to conduct an interview with him, in which he further described his experience in France and his expectations for the future. You can find this fascinating interview on the ILYMUN Youtube channel, where it will soon be published.

General Assembly and Closing Ceremony

The ILYMUN 2018 General Assembly, the biggest debate by far, got together at 1:15pm and debated on which NGO ILYMUN should donate 1000€ to. Bangladesh suggested the association “Save the Children” to help feed the children in LEDCs and fight to prevent their exploitation, Ecuador presented the “World Food Program” to fight hunger in general in the world, and Iran called to the founding of a counter terrorism implementation task force. After much debate, the house chose the association “Save the Children”! It will now receive funding for its projects, which will allow ILYMUN to truly have an impact on the real world.

Finally, the conference ended after a moving closing ceremony, with a number of speeches from the executive board and teachers from ISL and CSI, including one written by Mr. Miller, who could not join us for the ceremony due to health issues. After many emotional goodbyes, one of the most successful ILYMUN conferences ever finally came to an end.

After three eventful and stimulating days of debating, the conference has at last come to an end. This year’s edition has been characterised by the incredible quality of its debates, and the impeccable organization of the event. It has hosted guest speakers of the caliber of Jurgen Stock, SG of Interpol, and Peter Barabas, Editor in Chief of Euronews, amongst many other exceptional individuals. It is with heavy hearts we say goodbye to ILYMUN 2018, and look forward to inaugurating the event once again next year! See you at ILYMUN 2019…